Shopify Admin GraphQL API for Beginners: Orders, Products & Metafields

Why GraphQL over REST?

Shopify's GraphQL Admin API lets you request exactly the fields you need in a single round-trip — no over-fetching, no multiple REST calls. It also gives access to newer capabilities like metafield definitions that don't exist in REST.

Authentication

All Admin API calls require an access token in the X-Shopify-Access-Token header:

const SHOPIFY_DOMAIN = "yourstore.myshopify.com";
const ACCESS_TOKEN = process.env.SHOPIFY_ACCESS_TOKEN;

async function shopifyQuery(query, variables = {}) {
  const res = await fetch(
    `https://${SHOPIFY_DOMAIN}/admin/api/2024-07/graphql.json`,
    {
      method: "POST",
      headers: {
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
        "X-Shopify-Access-Token": ACCESS_TOKEN,
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({ query, variables }),
    }
  );
  return res.json();
}

Fetching the last 10 orders

query GetOrders {
  orders(first: 10, sortKey: CREATED_AT, reverse: true) {
    edges {
      node {
        id
        name
        displayFinancialStatus
        totalPriceSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } }
        customer { firstName lastName email }
      }
    }
  }
}

Reading a product metafield

query GetProductMeta($id: ID!) {
  product(id: $id) {
    title
    metafield(namespace: "custom", key: "care_instructions") {
      value
      type
    }
  }
}

Writing a metafield

mutation SetMeta($input: [MetafieldsSetInput!]!) {
  metafieldsSet(metafields: $input) {
    metafields { id key value }
    userErrors { field message }
  }
}

Variables:

{
  "input": [{
    "ownerId": "gid://shopify/Product/123456",
    "namespace": "custom",
    "key": "care_instructions",
    "value": "Machine wash cold",
    "type": "single_line_text_field"
  }]
}